The problem I have with judging how good this really is is that I don't know how I'd have reacted to it if I'd heard it later. 1.Outside (which is catchily subtitled The Ritual Art-Murder of Baby Grace Blue: A Non-Linear Gothic Drama Hyper-Cycle, by the way) really does beat you about the head with its concept - the CD inlay is one of the most carefully-presented and ridiculous in my collection. The concept, detailed in the short story The Diary of Nathan Adler which makes up most of the inlay, revolves around a dystopian world where murder has become an art form and corpses are being used as canvases, and the government have responded by legislating all art and heavily restricting its creation - the titular Nathan Adler is a government official employed to investigate art and decide what is legal and acceptable, and what is not. This leads him to invesigate the murder of a 14 year old girl which appears to be linked to an underground art collective.
If this all sounds like a mish-mash of Minority Report and 1984 to you, then you've pegged it. Yet it's important to note that if you don't read the inlay, you probably won't understand the story - unlike an album like Queensryche's Operation:Mindcrime (Outside's most obvious rock-as-dystopia competitor) the songs themselves are reasonably vague and don't tell a story as such, creating a mood instead. I actually find it a little surprising that this came out in 1995, rather than 2005; I don't own any other album where the inlay adds so much to the music, which would seem like a pretty great way of discouraging illegal downloading if downloading has actually existed back then.
Then again, in terms of sound, it's pretty clear that this came out in '95. Bowie was pretty open in interviews about his influences here, pointing to The Young Gods particularly, but it's no accident that this came out just a year after Nine Inch Nails dropped The Downward Spiral. It's no copycat or sequel - Bowie and Eno's personalities still run right through the music - but the links are obvious, and I find it very hard to listen to this without wondering whether they'd have been brave enough to even attempt it if Trent Reznor hadn't already proved that there was a mass audience for this sound.
But if you can overlook that, and you can accept the story as part of the project and not dismiss it as pretentious, overarching whimsy, you'll find a thoughtful, intense, dark, powerful album that comfortably ranks as Bowie's most under-rated, and that should probably be considered his best in 15 years at least. Many have pointed to "Strangers When We Meet", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" as highlights, and they certainly are when taken in isolation, but the album is best enjoyed as a whole, with the distressing segues and experiments like "A Small Plot of Land" treated as a vital part of the experience. Weirdly, the hit "Hallo Spaceboy", notably remixed by Pet Shop Boys, almost feels like the worst track on the album when in context, because the mood is so important and this nearly breaks it. That's just one of the many reasons why the still-enigmatic 1.Outside is unlike any other Bowie album. It's arguably an album more for fans of the outer fringes of '90s rock rather than fans of Bowie, but either way, there is much to recommend about this beguiling record.
Tracklist for Outside:
1. Leon Takes Out Outside
2. Outside
3. The Heart's Filthy Lesson
4. A Small Plot of Land
5. Segue - Baby Grace
6. Hallo Spaceboy
7. The Motel
8. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
9. No Control
10. Segue - Algeria Touchshriek
11. The Voyage Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
12. Segue - Ramona A. Stone/I Am With Name
13. Wishful Beings
14. We Prick You
15. Segue - Nathan Adler
16. I'm Deranged
17. Thru' These Architects Eyes
18. Segue - Nathan Adler (2)
19. Strangers When We Meet
If this all sounds like a mish-mash of Minority Report and 1984 to you, then you've pegged it. Yet it's important to note that if you don't read the inlay, you probably won't understand the story - unlike an album like Queensryche's Operation:Mindcrime (Outside's most obvious rock-as-dystopia competitor) the songs themselves are reasonably vague and don't tell a story as such, creating a mood instead. I actually find it a little surprising that this came out in 1995, rather than 2005; I don't own any other album where the inlay adds so much to the music, which would seem like a pretty great way of discouraging illegal downloading if downloading has actually existed back then.
Then again, in terms of sound, it's pretty clear that this came out in '95. Bowie was pretty open in interviews about his influences here, pointing to The Young Gods particularly, but it's no accident that this came out just a year after Nine Inch Nails dropped The Downward Spiral. It's no copycat or sequel - Bowie and Eno's personalities still run right through the music - but the links are obvious, and I find it very hard to listen to this without wondering whether they'd have been brave enough to even attempt it if Trent Reznor hadn't already proved that there was a mass audience for this sound.
But if you can overlook that, and you can accept the story as part of the project and not dismiss it as pretentious, overarching whimsy, you'll find a thoughtful, intense, dark, powerful album that comfortably ranks as Bowie's most under-rated, and that should probably be considered his best in 15 years at least. Many have pointed to "Strangers When We Meet", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" as highlights, and they certainly are when taken in isolation, but the album is best enjoyed as a whole, with the distressing segues and experiments like "A Small Plot of Land" treated as a vital part of the experience. Weirdly, the hit "Hallo Spaceboy", notably remixed by Pet Shop Boys, almost feels like the worst track on the album when in context, because the mood is so important and this nearly breaks it. That's just one of the many reasons why the still-enigmatic 1.Outside is unlike any other Bowie album. It's arguably an album more for fans of the outer fringes of '90s rock rather than fans of Bowie, but either way, there is much to recommend about this beguiling record.
Tracklist for Outside:
1. Leon Takes Out Outside
2. Outside
3. The Heart's Filthy Lesson
4. A Small Plot of Land
5. Segue - Baby Grace
6. Hallo Spaceboy
7. The Motel
8. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
9. No Control
10. Segue - Algeria Touchshriek
11. The Voyage Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
12. Segue - Ramona A. Stone/I Am With Name
13. Wishful Beings
14. We Prick You
15. Segue - Nathan Adler
16. I'm Deranged
17. Thru' These Architects Eyes
18. Segue - Nathan Adler (2)
19. Strangers When We Meet
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